Lisbon Portugal Travel VIDEO Our Impressions

We had actually planned from the beginning to make Porto our final destination while visiting Portugal. However due to certain events, we had to change our filming location to Lisbon and so only got to spend one day in Porto town – but LOVED IT!

After walking around for a few hours, I really wished we had more time there.

There was something raw about this place that I wanted to find out more about. There was a roughness to the town, and a charisma of the people that I didn’t want to leave so quickly.

Lisbon Portugal Travel VIDEO

After a stressful and rushed visit to Paris, we really needed a few days rest – so we decided to spend extra day in Lisbon – DOING NOTHING! We both really loved our stay in Lisbon, and can’t wait get get back to the explore more of Portugal.

We’ve just jumped on the Tram 28 in Lisbon, and the cool thing about this tram is it’s not actually a tourist tram. It’s a local tram, so anyone can get on here, and it’s used to get around the city. It’s become an icon for tourists in Lisbon to come her and jump on, because the tram goes all around the old parts of town. It’s a great way of seeing Lisbon, so you can get an overview of the whole city. It’s pretty steep though. It’s a really old tram as well. We’ve just jumped off the Tram 28, we’ve gone the whole way through Lisbon city. At one point, we thought we were completely lost, but we actually got off where we wanted to get off. So we’ve seen the Old Town. It’s really beautiful here. Now we’re going to go taste a local Portuguese— Pastel de nata. It’s like a local Portuguese style of custard tart.

So we’re tasting the pastel de nata, a custard tart, traditional Portuguese recipe. It’s pretty heavy, huh? You can tell that they’re filled with custard. They’re still warm. I like that. Pretty solid. Really thick with custard. The cinnamon on top is really nice too. Yeah, putting that cinnamon on top, perfect combination huh? It only cost about 90 cents. It’s getting really warm now. Portugal this time of the day, it’s too hot to walk around. It’s too hot to do anything really. So we’re going to grab some lunch and go over to the hostel and rest. And then this evening, we’re going to go and watch the sunset. There are seven hills in Lisbon that have great vantage points over the city so you can watch the sunset. Apparently it’s really beautiful. We’re going to do that this evening. Then we’re going to go down to the Old Quarters and try some port wine and listen to some fado music. It’s going to be great. Wait until it cools down a bit.

We came here to watch the sunset by St. George’s Castle. Turns out that you have to pay for it, and the whole area is fenced off. So we tried to find a free view, and here it is. It is fenced off, but I think it is absolutely beautiful anyway, and it was totally worth the walk up here, walking through the little neighborhoods, and the narrow streets, and seeing the little cafés around here, and the people hanging out by the doors or in the windows, talking to the neighbors. It was really cool to see. Ok, we found the same view five meters down without a fence. So we’ve got an incredible view right now. All for ourselves. Sun’s setting over there. There’s a church over there that is absolutely beautiful. It’s amazing what you can find when you just walk down three meters down the street. That’s the thing, if you get a bit of interest, go around the corner where no one else is going, you get an incredible view of Lisbon. It’s absolutely—to be honest, it’s one of the most incredible views I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s absolutely beautiful. The sun’s about to set right there. That’s a great way to finish the day. It’s been a busy day, we’ve gone around the whole of Lisbon. We’re sitting here. We’re tasting port wine. Cheers. It’s really, really good. Honestly, it’s one of the best wines I’ve ever had. Yeah, port wine. I haven’t even tried port wine before. It’s very sweet, it’s very fruity. Right? It’s been a great day though. I love Portugal, I love Lisbon. Yeah, I’ve had a really good—That sunset blew me away.

Here are some of our first impressions from Porto and Lisbon:

Spend 3 Days – Gain 3 Pounds.

In some streets it’s actually difficult finding a restaurant among the dozens of bakeries selling amazing cakes and pastries.

It’s hard to choose among all the goodies here, but the famous Pasteis De Nata were definitely in the top 3!

At any time of the day there are locals in the cafes having pastry for breakfast, snack or after dinner dessert.

But pastries in all their sugar and glamor does not even compare to the crazy local favorite meal in Porto: the Francesinha.

This is – believe it or not – a sandwich.

You can’t see the sandwich because of all the cheese layers covering it, but inside the two slices of bread are several kinds of meat (smoked ham, sausage, roasted beef), and on top of it all: it’s drenched in a bowl of special sauce with ingredients like – beer…

The Views In Both Porto & Lisbon Are Incredible.

In Lisbon, you can spend a lot of time visiting the many different ”miradouros” – viewpoints, which are spread out over the seven different hills surrounding the city.

In Porto, the homeless guys have the best view: Living in the abandoned and totally rundown houses overlooking the river.

The plants had taken control of the houses and completely buried some underneath its green bed, which to be honest – was part of the beauty.

The location was priceless, yet nobody lived there – or so we thought – until a homeless person jumped up from the wall parting the buildings and us, greeted us politely, and walked away.

This was the place where a lot of homeless people lived: with a million dollar view…

The Buildings Are Built With Bathroom-Style Tiles On The Outside.

Shiny bathroom tiles and what looked like porcelain makes up the outside decoration on many of the buildings and churches around town.

This is a very traditional kind of decoration on houses there, which we saw a lot of it in both Porto and Lisbon, especially in the old areas.

This really adds color to the buildings, and makes each one very unique.

I can’t help but to think of the tiles you have decorating your kitchen and bathrooms with, but it’s pretty cool to see people using it in a completely different way.

I love people doing things the opposite way to what I’m used to – which brings me to the next point…

They Stand Up While Eating.

I couldn’t make any sense of this. In all cafes, people would ignore the many free seats and tables, preferring to stand up to eat their soup on standing at the counter.

Were they really that stressed? Were they trying to avoid wrinkles on their suits? Were they taking an opportunity to stand up a little before going back to work in an office?

Romantic Portugal so far has been my personal favorite country on this trip, I loved the vibe, the cities and the people.

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